LOYOLA LINKS

• February 2, 2012
• 12:00 pm
• Karis Hustad
• one comment

Photographing hope in Nairobi

Children involved with the Africa Circle of Hope Foundation gather with this cameras.

Ordinarily when kids snap a picture, it may end up e-mailed to a relative or hanging on the family refrigerator.

For the children who are involved with the Africa Circle of Hope Foundation, however, their photos will be displayed in the Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) as part of the This Is Home: Youth Document Life in a Nairobi Slum exhibition opening February 3 in the museum’s Push Pin Gallery.

But their story is not the average adolescent’s.

The children live in the Mahare slums in Nairobi, Kenya. Africa Circle of Hope Foundation Vice President and Loyola Professor Kay Felkins describes the place as an informal settlement, with raw sewage running down the roads, and where crime and violence are commonplace. The children have faced many difficulties in their lives, many of them orphans, and have struggled with poverty, HIV/AIDS, and limited opportunities. In light of these hardships, Felkins says their optimism is impressive.

“As the exhibition shows, these children are remarkably resilient with strong faith and genuine appreciation for what little they have,” she says. “These young people have dreams and we want to help them reach their dreams and develop their potential.”

Felkins has been able to do this through her work with Africa Circle of Hope Foundation, which she co-founded, and their partner in Nairobi, Good Samaritan Children’s Home. The foundation works with the home to provide scholarships for school uniforms, fees, and tuition costs in hopes of giving these students a chance to get ahead. Felkins says the optimism of the home’s director motivated her to want to make a difference.

“I was also inspired by the dedication and faith of the founder and director of Good Samaritan, Mercy Thuo,” she says. “As Mercy says, ‘We live in the slums but our minds do not have to be in the slums. Education is the way out.’ These children have had a hard life and they deserve a chance to get an education and have an opportunity for a better future.”

Aside from fundraising for these students, Felkins got the idea for the photography project after a recent trip to the region where she witnessed first-hand the students’ fascination with cameras and taking pictures of themselves. She brought back disposable cameras and journals for 10 students at Good Samaritan and asked them to document their lives. For many, it was their first time holding a camera.

Felkins brought back the photos and showed them to School of Communication Manager of Technology Jamason Chen, who suggested a display in LUMA and volunteered to curate the exhibition. Felkins says the students were excited just to have the chance to take photographs, but were elated when they found out they would be displayed in a museum in the United States. Many of the students who took the photos are now in secondary school and beginning their way out of the slums, but she is bringing cameras back to Good Samaritan when she goes back to Nairobi in May in hopes of giving more students the chance to document their lives.

For Felkins, a professor in the School of Communication, this project and the Africa Circle of Hope Foundation have been a huge part of her experience as an educator and communications professional.

“This experience and others I have had in Kenya over almost 10 years have enriched my life and my teaching by giving me the opportunity to take my research and communication skills into the world,” she says. “My research and project development in Kenya is also part of my responsibility to the mission of Loyola University Chicago with ‘education in the service of humanity.’”

In the future, she hopes to create connections between the School of Communication and the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi, focusing on communications and storytelling about the largely under-reported on region.

For now however, putting a camera and journal in the hands of these kids is the first step toward a better future.

“As the exhibition shows, these children are remarkably resilient with strong faith and genuine appreciation for what little they have,” she says. “These young people have dreams and we want to help them reach their dreams and develop their potential.”